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Joseph Swan is one producer whose bloodlines in Pinot Noir run as deep as it goes in California and whose pioneering work with the variety created perhaps its most valued clone. Swan purchased his land on Trenton Road in the Russian River Valley in 1967 on the advice of his close friend and mentor André Tchelistcheff, renowned for lending his advice and expertise to Beaulieu Vineyards, Heitz Cellars, Jordan and Grgich Hills Estate, to name a few. Swan’s Pinots quickly became the benchmarks against which all others in the area measured their success; winemakers like Joe Rochioli, Gary Farrell and Davis Bynum all looked on Swan as an inspiration and advisor and used cuttings from his vineyards to start their own.

Swan’s successor Rod Berglund has carried on Swan’s legacy as a great winemaker, he says, by simply imitating Joe. Not much has changed in the Swan cellars over the past thirty-plus years. Though Rod makes several delicious terroir-specific wines, it’s the blended Pinot he calls Cuvée de Trois that shows the style that made this seminal property so famous. In 2019 it includes wine from Swan’s Trenton Estate Vineyard and parcels in Trenton View, Saralee’s, Catie’s Corner, Ritchie, Solas, and Great Oak—all Russian River Pinot Noir vineyard aristocracy!

We love the wine’s bold, briary flavors and impressive depth. It captures a Russian River Pinot Noir from an earlier era, when the wine’s cinnamon-infused cherry perfume came solely from the fruit and the texture enticed with its elegance, while still offering plenty of weight, presence and a Gevrey-Chambertin-like minerality.

In short, it’s a gorgeous bottle of Pinot—a fabulous partner tonight with herby lamb chops or a peppery steak, or a worthy candidate for another four, five or even ten years in your cellar.